by Chris Lowry
He did neither.
“I assumed the one would do,” he said. “But our craft were delayed in takeoff.”
He had heard the term “human error” within the first six months of establishing the beachhead on earth, and assumed it meant the slaves they kept to do work on their base.
He tried to make suitable examples of any miscreants to the few workers remaining, but so far, his efforts had not yielded the desired results.
“The human infestation,” she flicked her tongue out in disgust.
Lick Commander nodded.
“Then remove them from the base,” she suggested, even though it sounded more like an order.
“They have their uses,” he started to protest.
“Find more,” she said. “Others. Are their young not more pliant? That’s why they send them to battle us on Mars, is it not?”
He nodded again, the neurons in his brain firing like a laser battery as he tried to determine her reasons for assisting, her reasons for mercy.
“The suggestion makes sense,” he told her.
It was her turn to nod. The Nestmate wouldn’t take her eyes off of him, but far from making him uncomfortable, he found her look to be invigorating.
He could say nothing, nor could he act on it, for a quick blast to the head wouldn’t be far behind, but he relished the way she stared at him.
A Lick soldier bowed and scraped into the room, eyes locked on the Commander in a sigh of obedience and respect in front of the Nestmate.
The example he had made of his fellow must have reached the ears of the commoners, Lick Commander held in a snort of derision. That soldier had paid for his impertinence and lack of respect.
“The craft approaches the signal,” the soldier informed them.
And so they watched as the craft disappeared from radar.
The Nestmate snorted long and low.
“Does that mean it is destroyed?”
Lick Commander made an indistinct noise in his throat.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Are they often able to destroy our battle craft?”
“Not the humans left,” he said.
“And yet they did.”
“Yet they did,” he agreed.
He feared to meet her gaze, wondered now how she would be looking at him.
But when he could no longer stare at the floating holograph, he looked over at her, to find her staring still.
“An interesting challenge, do you not think?” she hissed.
He tilted his head.
No repercussion. No blame. Just a question that seared into him.
“I do enjoy an interesting challenge,” her eyes sparked. “Perhaps you will allow my advice and assistance.”
He nodded, for there was no other answer when a member of the royal house made a request. But in the back of his mind, he wondered at the outcome.
Humans called it luck.
And the Lick Commander felt very lucky to be alive, and luckier still to have found an ally.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Danish led the squad through the trees. He wasn’t sure where they were going, just a direction that took them away from the ambush site and the stream where they sent the tracking device.
His eyes flicked through the treetops, always on the hunt for squirrels or something else they could turn into dinner.
He had a standing bet with Lutz on catching one first. He thought point should be able to see them, but so far, Lutz was the best provider they had.
He was the best pathfinder though, he shrugged the straps on his pack. Even as light as it was, they still ate into his shoulders, leaving a permanent ache.
What he wanted more than a squirrel for dinner was a massage.
He wondered if the girl prisoner would give him one.
She’s not a prisoner, he reminded himself, then spent the next hundred yards wondering what exactly she was, who they were.
And where they were going.
Lt had nodded in general direction, and so far, hadn’t called a halt or shift yet.
Maybe it meant he had something in mind, maybe it just meant he didn’t know. Danish wasn’t sure either way.
Leroy stepped closer behind him.
“Did you see her?” he whispered in the back of Danish’s head.
“I saw.”
“What did you think?”
“I think you better keep your eyes off of her,” Danish whispered back.
“You can’t call dibs,” Leroy argued.
“You heard Lt. We’re not touching her.”
“Man, that’s only if she doesn’t want to be touched. If she liked you, I bet you’d ignore Lt.”
Danish shook his head.
“No way,” he said.
But that was one more thing to wonder about. Not that she gave any of them a second look. And the circumstances sure weren’t right, not for any kind of romance to blossom.
He could wonder though, and dream. It seemed like Leroy was already thinking along those lines.
“Where’s he taking us?”
Danish shrugged.
“The man pointed,” he said. “We go.”
“Think he’s sniffed out some Licks?”
The man seemed to have a nose for where they gathered, for where they patrolled.
“Probably.”
He also was the only one with any real military training. Danish, Leroy and the rest of them had come up in the ranks after the invasion. Lt was a soldier before they showed up, thought he never said much about it.
None of them did.
Better not to talk about the before. Just focus on cleaning up the now and get ready for the after.
“I heard him with the Colonel, you know?”
“What did they say?”
“They want us to start organizing.”
“What do you think?”
Leroy chewed on the corner of his lip for a minute.
“Seems like a waste of our talent. What do you think?”
Danish shrugged.
“I think if Lt wanted to get a big group together, they’d follow him to the end of the earth.”
“Maybe that’s what I’m afraid of,” Leroy said softly. “If a big group of us do get together, it’s the end of the earth as we know it. Harder to get all of us divided up like we are.”
Danish pondered that as they walked in silence for a few moments.
“That’s what they did on the coasts. Got us in numbers. It’s why we don’t do big anymore,” Leroy said.
“Maybe that’s why now is the right time to start again,” Danish offered. “Because they don’t expect it.”
“Maybe,” Leroy grunted. “It doesn’t matter though. I’m going to do whatever Lt tells me to do.”
“Me too.”
“Unless that girl wants to get to know me better. That sort of things isn’t up to him.”
Danish snickered.
“Brother, I think you might have to get in line.”
He nodded. Leroy looked over and saw Steph watching Jake as they marched through the trees.
“Yeah, but he don’t look like he wants to be in line,” Leroy smiled back.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Lt called a halt a half hour later. They were miles from the stream, far enough he figured, that they were safe for the moment.
He heard Jake’s stomach rumble, and stared at their guests. His squad was tough, used to lean eating and hard moving, but not these three.
Doc massaged his calves while Jake stared at the ground with a sullen look on his face. Steph stared back at him, her face a blank slate of emotion, but her eyes looked tired.
He sat down in front of them.
“We ain’t eating until later,” he told them. “This here is a parlay for what’s about to happen next.”
Jake glanced up, caught Lt’s eye and looked back down again.
“Now this one says he don’t remember nothing. Can’t,” he pointed at Jake with a long finger. “T
his one says he remembers a lot. And you, well I’m still trying to figure you out.”
He stared at Steph for a minute.
“What were you doing on the train?”
She shrugged.
“You got a memory?”
She huffed and nodded.
“Well, go on then, tell us what you remember.”
“I was a prisoner, and then I wasn’t.”
“Where?”
She shrugged again.
“I don’t know.”
“How did you get to be a prisoner?”
She shook her head.
“I just was. For as long as I can remember. They used us to maintain their bases.”
Lt rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.
“You know the layout of the bases?”
“A base.”
He looked at Doc.
“The same one you were on? And you?”
“I can speculate,” Doc answered. “They put us on the train at the same time. He was unconscious.”
“That don’t answer the question I asked, Doc. Were you on the same base as her?”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
“I think so.”
“Think don’t cut it where I come from. A man can think a lot, but that don’t make it so.”
Lutz, Babe and the rest of the squad spread out to form a loose perimeter, but still close enough to hear.
“It’s different in there,” Steph spoke in a hushed town. “You don’t look up, you don’t make noise, you don’t do anything. Just do what you’re told.”
Lt glanced around at his men.
“Not much different out here, is it boys?”
No one said anything to agree with him.
“They didn’t answer you,” Jake sneered.
“That’s cause they knew I was being rhetorical, don’t you?”
“Yes sir,” they chorused in yips and barks.
“Alright, so you don’t remember nothing, and you might have come from the same spot, but you’re not sure. They transfer you around much?”
Doc and Steph shook their heads. Jake couldn’t answer.
“Then we’re gonna move that down the list of possibilities. Ya’ll probably were in the same place. You remember how to get there?”
“The train left from there,” Doc answered. “Straight shot to where you rescued us.”
“That how you’re thinking on this?” Lt squinted. “You think I rescued you?”
“What else would you call it?”
“I think you were planted on me. His bug designed to lead them to either HQ or a group like mine.”
“Ain’t no group like ours, Lt!” chirped Crocket.
“Damn straight Crocket. But I ain’t arrogant enough to think we’re the only ones out here causing a row.”
He turned back to face the trio.
“Just the best at it.”
His men chuckled and agreed.
“Now that bug is gone, they’re gonna be wondering what to do next. I bet they got radar on that base, don’t they?”
It was Doc’s turn to shrug.
“I’ve never been in the command center,” he said.
“Me neither,” Steph added.
“Well we had that technology before they tried to send us back to the stone ages, so I suspect they do too. Or they’re using ours. They’re gonna track those supply trucks.”
He turned to look over his shoulder at the squad.
“I figure while their eyes are looking one way, we sneak on that base and gouge ‘em out.”
The men nodded as they shared glances.
“That’s a big target, Lt,” said Lutz.
“Yeah Lutz it is. But I’ve been thinking about something I read a long time ago. A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, for what else are stars for.”
“That’s pretty,” said Steph.
“What does it mean?” said Lutz.
“It means dream big,” snapped Jake.
“Yeah, that’s what it means,” Lt said.
“You’re dreaming if you think you can take on a whole base,” said Jake, his eyes glaring at Lt, then bouncing off the men around them. “That dream’s going to be a nightmare.”
“Yeah,” Lt said. “I figure it will be. But we’re gonna make some stops along the way.”
He stood up.
“We got a mission from on high,” he told the squad. “Message delivery service is our specialty now. And if we run across a few Licks along the way, you can add to my collection.”
He turned back to the Doc.
“You any good at ciphering?”
“Breaking code?”
“No, figuring out distance. Like if a train left a station traveling at fifty miles per hour, how long would it take to get from there to where we stopped it?”
Doc grinned.
“I had not thought of it like that.”
“Yeah, you Pedes is full of book learning, but the common sense,” he tapped his finger against his temple.
“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted. We rested enough. Let’s move out.”
He pointed, and Danish hopped to. Leroy fell in behind him again as the rest assumed their positions in line. Doc only groaned a little bit as he worked out the kinks with an exaggerated limp.
“One hundred and fifty miles,” he said to Lt. “I hope we don’t have to walk that far.”
“Doc,” Lt grinned. “I like the way you think.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
The Nestmate called it a purge. Lick Commander called it delicious.
The soldiers rounded up every human on the base, herding them like cattle onto an old abandoned runway and arranged them in a long line.
He stood next to her on a raised platform in the back of a human transport truck, using it as an impromptu stage.
There was no pomp or celebration though.
Once the soldiers had gathered every last human on the base and put them on the tarmac, they lined up opposite of them, separated by the crumbling black asphalt.
“Shall I?” the Nestmate said in a voice that sent a shiver of anticipation down his spine.
“Be my guest,” he told her.
She raised a three fingered claw and dropped her arm.
The soldiers opened fire, strafing the line of base servants with laser blasts.
Humans and bits of humans popped, boiled and shattered as the rays of super heated light ripped through them.
The smell of death and cooked meat permeated the runway after the shooting stopped in a few short minutes.
The Lick Commander watched his companion’s tongue flick in and out as she tasted it, yellow eyes narrow slits of pleasure.
“And now,” she said, one of her claws tracing the uniform sleeve on his forearm. “The replacements.”
It was his turn to give the signal, and the fleet of transport vehicles rumbled to life. The convoy departed the base, leaving the remains of the dead for the birds and insects to feast.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
“Where are we?” Doc asked, his eyes taking in the surrounding landscape.
“Almost there,” said Lt. “We’ve got a place up here we’re gonna stop at for the night.”
He left out that they were meeting one of the outposts, a group of fighters the Colonel wanted to bring into the fold and coordinate with.
Doc didn’t stop gaping, his head on a swivel as he tried to take it all in. He lost his balance twice, and stumbled.
Lt called a halt.
The older man spun in a slow circle, taking in the field that stretched to the horizon, the trees, and sky.
